ENAR Launch Shadow Report on Racism in Europe

March 22nd 2011

The European Network Against Racism launched its 6th Shadow Report on Racism in Europe on Monday 21 March 2011

The European Network against Racism (ENAR) launched its 2009-2010 Shadow Report on Racism in Europe on Monday 21 March 2011. The event was hosted by the European Parliament’s Anti-racism and Diversity Intergroup.

The 6th Shadow Report on Racism in Europe collects and synthesises the perspective of civil society on racism. The report brings together national shadow reports of ENAR members in order to present key trends, problems and improvements in the context of racism in Europe.
Key Findings

The report collected data on manifestations of racism in the areas of employment, housing, education, health, access to goods and services, policing, racist violence and the media across 27 National shadow reports produced by NGOs in 26 EU Member States and Croatia.

The report makes a number of key recommendations to governments, with an emphasis on taking a rights based approach to discrimination and racism; mainstreaming anti-discrimination and equality across all areas of policy; the importance of developing data collection mechanisms at the European and National levels and the need to involve civil society stakeholders in the drafting and implementation of policy formation and practices.

Chibo Onyeji, President of ENAR, asserted that "We still have a long way to go before reaching effective equality for all. It is crucial that decision makers retain a focus on racism and ensure equality of treatment, particularly in times where an essential negative approach to migration has meant that migrants, or individuals perceived as migrants, are often treated as second class persons.

Mr Onyeji also took the opportunity of the launch to draw attention to the ENAR foundations Premiere: First Charity Gala for Racism free Europe, which will take place on the 24 June 2011 and will be the occasion of the ENAR Foundation Awards.

To read the shadow report in full please click hereRound Table on Racist Violence in Europe

During the launch a round table discussion was held on the subject of racist violence was held. This provided a platform for discussion of the reports findings, and focused specifically on the widespread phenomenon of racist violence in Europe in the context of the role the institutions have to play in awareness raising and strategy development.